Search engine optimization, SEO, is the hottest thing in the marketing world, for great reasons. Building organic traffic is so much better than ads for so many reasons. People trust search results more, they have something in mind they’re looking for, and you’re not forcing anything onto them.
Well, SEO has become popular, and getting high up in the ranks is pretty stiff competition! Luckily, with the right SEO tools in your digital marketing strategy, you can start to get ahead of the competition! Let’s talk about how to create an SEO plan for your business.
How To Create an SEO Plan: Determine The Type
The first step in developing an SEO plan is to know what type of SEO you’ll be needing. There are a few questions you need to ask first. Are you an e-commerce store that can ship your merchandise anywhere? Do you rely on downloads? Are you a local store that depends on a physical building or area for business? Are you an app?
Your business type will determine the type of SEO you need to use. Here’s what you need to know about each.
General SEO
If you can ship merchandise anywhere, if you only rely on web traffic, or if you run a blog, you’ll benefit most from general SEO. If your target audience is anybody anywhere, then you’re trying to reach as broad of an audience as possible.
General SEO will mean competing against the entire world, which has its downsides, but the bright side is that your potential reach is enormous. 4.6 billion people have access to the internet, so if you can make it close to the top on a search, the sky is the limit.
Local SEO
If you’re a local pizza shop or if you’re trying to spread the word of an upcoming event, then local SEO is for you. This means trying to optimize for your area, so when people search for “thrift store near me”, yours will show up higher.
Most businesses do rely on local customers, so if you’re one of them, this is for you. The good news is that it’s a lot easier to beat the competition when you’re competing in one city rather than the entire country or the world.
App Store
If you are trying to bring traffic to a mobile app, then this is a completely different type of optimization. You would benefit most from app store optimization or ASO. This is done almost identically to general SEO, with a few key differences for the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
However, if you have a link to download your app on a website (which you should), having the right general SEO tools can definitely help you out with making downloads.
Conduct A Website Audit
You can always hire professionals or use online tools, but you can also do this yourself if you know how SEO works. Look on your website and be mindful of what Google looks for. Analyze different pages, monitor website speed, and look for important keywords. Compare it to a successful website like The Wall Street Journal that has highly successful rates on Google, and see how you compare.
Obviously, it’s easy to forget to look for every little thing on your site, so use Google Insights to see which keywords are most common in your industry, how your business is performing, and what else you can do.
Build Those Backlinks
Backlinks are the foundation of SEO, and they aren’t completely out of your control. You definitely don’t want to neglect this, as it’s one of the most important ranking factors in SEO.
Google monitors an entire web of how often your website is linked to. When another website links to a page on your site, that’s called a backlink. You can always pay other websites to make guest posts to direct traffic to your site or you can make deals to return the favor. Remember, this is the primary factor in off-page ranking, which how Google ranks you off of your site.
Optimize Your Website For Mobile Devices
Being mobile-friendly these days is a must. The majority of web traffic is now mobile, so there’s no excuse for not having this in your strategy.
Add A Blog
If you don’t have a blog on your site, you’re wasting so much opportunity. Your website might have 5 pages, which is 5 chances to rank highly on a Google search. However, if you start a blog, you will have hundreds of chances to rank highly on Google in a couple of years. All it takes is one to give you the momentum you need.
Be sure to post on a consistent schedule. If it’s easier, have content written in advance and drop them on a set schedule.
Add Pages
Each topic within your industry should not only have multiple blog articles written about it but a page dedicated to it. If you’re in construction, have a page about gutter services, one for roofing, and one for decks. Keep that list going! If it’s a lot, add a user-friendly menu to the site to help direct traffic to where they need to go. Again, this just gives you more chances to hit the target when people search for these services.
List Keywords
Keep a long list of any valuable keywords and try to use them as much as possible. Use them in relevant blog articles, know which ones are most important, and use them wherever you can fit them naturally.
Get Professional Help
The sad truth is that there is a lot more to building a successful SEO strategy if you’re trying to make it up to the top. If you’re overwhelmed by all of the SEO tricks, you can always contact an SEO agency to get professional help.
Build That Organic Traffic!
Now that you know how to create an SEO plan, the best time to get started is now! Have a strategy in place, stick to it, and build a network of quality content, keywords, and backlinks to get your website booming! Stay up to date on our latest marketing news, and watch that traffic grow!
